The present invention relates to a system and method for providing subliminal auditory signals to an area such as a customer shopping area within a store. More particularly, the invention relates to such a system and method in which the amplitude of the subliminal signal is adjusted in response to the amplitude of ambient audio signals from the customer shopping area.
It has been established that auditory subliminal signals, that is, those presented below the conscious recognition level of the listener, can be used to influence the listener's behavior to some degree. Some early research into visual and auditory subliminal stimulation effects are exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,060,795 of Corrigan, et al. and 3,278,676 of Becker.
In addition, Becker is understood to have experimented with the use of auditory subliminal messages to deter shoplifting by retail store customers. Although applicants have not seen or studied Mr. Becker's device, it is believed to combine an auditory subliminal message with background music. However, during non-peak shopping and other times when the store area is exceptionally quiet, the background music signal component in Becker must be much louder than the subliminal signal as otherwise the subliminal signal would be at a level such that it may be consciously recognized by a listener. In addition, as a result of this large difference between the amplitude of the background music and that of the subliminal message signal, the effectiveness of the Becker subliminal message is reduced. Also, Becker is understood to maintain his combined background music and subliminal message at a level sufficiently high enough to enable the music to be heard even under noisy store conditions. However, when the ambient audio signal level drops, such as during non-peak store traffic times, the combined background music and subliminal signal would remain the same and seem overly loud. Thus, Becker is simply not understood to control the amplitude of a subliminal message in response to ambient audio signals from an area.
Accordingly, there is a need for an auditory subliminal message system and method which solves these and other problems.